Reba Gets Emotional With “Pray for Peace” Music Video

Reba turned to social media to make a plea for people from around the world to send in their videos.

Tricia Despres | Published: Aug 19, 2014

photo by Russ Harrington/BMLG

It started as a chant in Reba McEntire’s head. Then it became a song. And then it became one of the most powerful and important music videos of the country music legend’s career . . . thanks to a few ordinary people.

It was just a few short months ago, before “Pray for Peace” became a Twitter hashtag and the song was shared by a countless number of country music’s biggest stars, that Reba turned to social media to make a plea for people from around the world to send in videos in which they show where they pray for peace.

“I got emotional when I saw how many fans wanted to get involved,” explains Reba during a recent interview with Country Weekly. “Cody [Kern] and Justin [McIntosh] were the [Starstruck Entertainment employees] who went through all the videos and picked which ones would be used. Watching people in their hometowns of Scotland or Africa making the ‘Pray for Peace’ gestures thickened the video so much more than just having me up there chanting and singing by myself in the studio.”

More than 100 videos were sent in for the video, but only about half were ultimately able to be used in the final piece. “Someone tweeted that they had wished we had used their video because they cry every time they watch it,” Reba says. “I know exactly what they mean.”